Ann Davies

I stand to speak in support of new clause 1, tabled by the hon. Member for Brighton Pavilion (Siân Berry). The two-child cap should never have been introduced in the first place. As one of four siblings, I gently ask the hon. Member for South West Devon (Rebecca Smith): was I, the third born, worth less than my two older sisters or my younger sister? I am the mother of three daughters; was any one of my children worth less than any of the others? Absolutely not. At its most basic, that is what this policy is about. I was in receipt of free school meals, and I remember well queuing up outside the school secretary’s door to collect my dinner token. I would have been one of these statistics—one of the 31% of children in Wales growing up in financial poverty. It was not emotional poverty—I was not poor in love—but financial poverty. There is a huge difference there, and that is why this Bill is necessary. Ending the two-child cap will cause an 11% fall in child poverty and a nearly 20% drop in deep poverty, according to modelling by the Bevan Foundation and Policy in Practice, but the Bill’s success in tackling poverty is limited by other Government policies, especially the benefit cap. The benefit cap limits total income from certain social security payments to £22,000 a year—not the £71,000 that has been mentioned—for couples and single parents outside London. It has been frozen at that rate for 2026-27 by the Labour Government. Over 3,000 households were already affected by the benefit cap in Wales as of May last year, and 83% of those were households with children—the majority with three or more children. Those families will not benefit at all from the Bill. In fact, the Bevan Foundation estimates that more than one in five households affected by the two-child limit will not fully benefit from its removal because of the benefit cap. The hon. Member for Brighton Pavilion’s new clause 1 would place a duty on the Secretary of State to publish an impact assessment of the effects of the Bill. It would include an estimate of those households that would not see the full benefits of removing the two-child limit because of the benefit cap. I support this new clause as a way to allow us to understand the real impact of leaving the benefit cap where it is on families across our nations and our communities, but it does not go far enough, as many have said. As Plaid Cymru spokesperson, I tried to ensure that the UK Government tackled the benefit cap as well as the two-child limit, but the narrow scope of the Bill meant that I could not table amendments to do that. Only the Labour Government can make this Bill include changes to the benefit cap and help further reduce the unacceptable poverty in our communities. The UK Labour Government have said that they are committed to tackling child poverty. With 31% of children in my constituency in poverty, now is the time for the Government to show that commitment in action. I therefore urge the Secretary of State to use the powers available to him to legislate to scrap the benefit cap alongside the two-child limit, to make a real difference to children and families across all our communities.